When former University of Toronto library technician Wayne Sorge died in 2008 due to complications from a series of strokes, he left behind objects and impressions that reveal an unrelenting curiosity. Music was Sorge’s life—he sang; taught himself to play guitar, bass, and harp; and combined his love of music with his interest in medieval […]

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Wayne Sorge. Photo by Trevor Abes. Photo pictured by Sheldon Dawe.

When former University of Toronto library technician Wayne Sorge died in 2008 due to complications from a series of strokes, he left behind objects and impressions that reveal an unrelenting curiosity. Music was Sorge’s life—he sang; taught himself to play guitar, bass, and harp; and combined his love of music with his interest in medieval history by taking up the lute. And he amassed an album collection that has been given new life through a series of public listening parties.

Sorge started collecting vinyl in the late 1960s. His crate-digging was determined by time and money rather than obsession. When he couldn’t buy a record straight away, his desire and appreciation for it would grow. “He managed to scrounge around in second-hand record stores in Toronto to find most of his music,” says his wife, Mary Lyons, a painter and social worker at CAMH, “though he stopped briefly in the 1970s when he said rock and roll died in its sleep and nobody noticed.”

Later Wayne transferred his vinyl to cassettes, and mixed hundreds more tapes using the play-plus-record method of ripping songs from the radio. Throughout he showed a love for music from all over the world—much of it from artists with little more than regional exposure—and he categorized and preserved it with a meticulousness that reflected his library technician background.

Wayne’s main focus was reggae. He listened to big-name artists such as the Wailers’ Peter Tosh and Bob Marley as passionately as he did to Truths and Rights, an ecologically conscious roots group formed at a community co-op in Regent Park in the late 1970s.

When Sorge finished a tape, he would copy out the track list and draw the flag of the artist’s county of origin by hand. He’d then assign each tape a number corresponding to a master catalogue known as “The Red Book.” Photo by Corbin Smith.

Music from Africa came second. He collected palm-wine music—a guitar-driven genre based on Trinidadian Calypso and Soca, and named for a drink favoured by Portuguese sailors who introduced guitars to Liberia and Sierra Leone. He also collected highlife—represented by A.B. Crentsil and King Sunny Adé—a Ghanaian pop music known for its jazzy horns and openness to North American and European pop song structures. Then there was township jive, which was the sound of illegal clubs in Apartheid-era South Africa called shebeens, spaces where black Africans could drink, dance, and talk openly without interference from police.

His collection also included Byzantine and Gregorian chanting; classical music; Chinese rock and roll; Punjabi, Turkish, Japanese, and Celtic music; and a little opera (mostly Renée Fleming), as well as a four-cassette reading of The Hobbit. He created a series called Ear Pill, which he listened to when he needed to relax; it features comedy routines, Winston Churchill speeches, and some spoken word by Orson Welles.

Sorge’s interests were many and varied. In his wife’s words, “Wayne was a renaissance man, well-travelled, well-read, loved music, loved people, never held a grudge, and always got along with his ex-girlfriends.” He was also a writer and a self-professed political junkie.

An off-shoot of his passion for politics was his co-founding of a group called The Canadian False Nose Society, which assigned false noses to each of its members. The idea was to point out a problem with Canadian identity: that if you went to the trouble of wearing a false nose in public, few would feel comfortable enough to ask you about it simply because they were Canadian.

At Wayne’s wake they had false noses for anyone who cared to wear one.

Sing Leaf’s David Como. Photo by Corbin Smith.

Now, thanks to a local musician, more Torontonians will have an opportunity to enjoy Sorge’s collection and his passion for music.

This summer Mary made a trip to her local LCBO and struck up a conversation with David Como, a member of the experimental folk band Sing Leaf. They began by commiserating over the Blue Jays but eventually got around to talking about music.

David expressed his interest in world music—particularly that from Africa—and Mary suggested he might be interested in her late husband’s collection. David ended up taking home dozens of records and roughly 200 tapes. He was so impressed that he decided he wanted to share them with the city. And with that Go Easy With Me—a series of listening parties held at Holy Oak Cafe and starring Wayne’s library—was born.

Accessibility is a challenge in the art world. Fresh-faced artists have a difficult time finding an audience, or a place within the art community—and art enthusiasts have a difficult time finding those underrepresented artists. There are a few places in Toronto, though, that are bridging this gap. They incubate young artists, give them a place […]

Accessibility is a challenge in the art world. Fresh-faced artists have a difficult time finding an audience, or a place within the art community—and art enthusiasts have a difficult time finding those underrepresented artists. There are a few places in Toronto, though, that are bridging this gap. They incubate young artists, give them a place to sell their work, and connect them with other artists in the community.

Take Elephant in the Attic, a tiny shop-cum-marketplace featuring lost treasures and the work of local artists. The shop’s owner and curator, Caitlin Brubacher, makes prints from rare and unloved books. She builds and restores custom frames. She curates art as experience, and she’s dedicated to combining multidisciplinary art forms from emerging artists.

On display at the shop is Brubacher’s latest exhibit, called Self-Help. It comprises seven sections that range in subject matter from meditation to masturbation—each containing its own narrative that speaks to the exhibit’s overall theme. In each section, you’ll find Brubacher’s prints alongside rare and custom-made artwork. “We’ll make little worlds and we’ll put all the vendors’ works—we’ll curate them—into these worlds,” she says. “So, it’s like you’re blurring the line between high art and low art, gallery and store. Suddenly, now, this object is next to this other thing and it means something different.” Currently, Brubacher’s exhibit includes metal sculptures, necklaces, oil paintings, and silkscreens.

Speaking with Brubacher about the featured artists, one thing becomes clear: she finds art everywhere. Take her neighbour, a metal worker, for example. He helped with renovations to Elephant in the Attic and has been a fixture at the shop ever since. Though his trade is practical, he’s also dabbled in metal sculptures for his own collection. Brubacher convinced him to put the artwork on sale at the shop, marking his first public display. This isn’t a one-off story: Brubacher collects artists, often finding them in unexpected places. Many of the artists here aren’t selling elsewhere—Elephant in the Attic is their first rodeo.

Brubacher hopes to make Elephant in the Attic a community hub, a place for artists of all media to collaborate. Brubacher herself started as a playwright, and she knows a small shift in perspective can turn someone from craftsperson into artist. Her own story is proof: In a rut while living in New York City, Brubacher began a cycle of procrastination that entailed collecting prints and putting off writing—until, somewhere along the line, Brubacher realized that she found print collecting more fulfilling than writing. “Sometimes, I think if we listened to what we want to do when we’re procrastinating, we’d actually do better work,” Brubacher says.

She went from collector to curator, taught herself frame restoration, and began selling her work at markets in Brooklyn. When Brubacker moved home to Toronto, she met other local artists and decided to open a space of her own. Elephant in the Attic has only been open since September, but Brubacher already has plans for the future. She has a pop-up market in mind for the basement space, a book reading for the front window, and a nook full of wonderful old frames.

Brubacher hopes Elephant in the Attic’s eclectic and accessible nature will fill a void in the Toronto art community, both for artists and art enthusiasts. Pop by the shop to see her artwork or tell her about your own. Who knows—you might be her next stumble-upon.

Thirty rare unfinished drawings by Renaissance master Michelangelo have come to the Art Gallery of Ontario. The new exhibit Michelangelo: Quest for Genius offers a unique glimpse at the artist’s creative process, his frustrations, and even his failures, humanizing a man often held up to be untouchable. The drawings include preparatory sketches for some of […]

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Thirty rare unfinished drawings by Renaissance master Michelangelo have come to the Art Gallery of Ontario. The new exhibit Michelangelo: Quest for Genius offers a unique glimpse at the artist’s creative process, his frustrations, and even his failures, humanizing a man often held up to be untouchable.

The drawings include preparatory sketches for some of Michelangelo’s most famous works, ornate gifts the artist intended for men he loved, and dreamed up plans for sculptures, paintings, and buildings that were never realized. The changing whims and fortunes of his patrons, the volatile political climate of the Florentine Republic he called home, and the artist’s financial concerns conspired to deny his creative impulse time and time again.

David Wistow, the AGO interpretive planner who helped assemble the exhibit, believes the essence of Michelangelo’s talent can be found in these frustrations. “What I love to imagine—he’s in his studio, and he’s got his emotional life, and he’s got his intellectual life, and his spiritual life,” says Wistow. “And he has his talents as a sculptor, painter, and draftsman. And then another component in the equation is that […] he’s been told to paint this, to sculpt this. And so how does he bring those factors together, in the privacy of his studio, and make something coherent from it? That is the master, that is the genius.”

The drawings are not the only feature of the exhibit. There are also 3D models that show what some of Michelangelo’s buildings might have resembled had they been completed. “The dangers are the same as with every new technology in that you tend to believe it too much,” says Lloyd DeWitt, curator of European art at the AGO. “But what we literally see unfolding here are dreams coming true. For so long we’ve wanted to have some way to imagine walking into a building that Michelangelo designed, feeling what it must have felt like.”

Showcased alongside Michelangelo’s works are the sculptures of Auguste Rodin, who considered Michelangelo an inspiration, and whose artistic endeavours were also occasionally thwarted by forces beyond his control (Rodin’s most famous piece, The Thinker, was originally part of a massive work that was never used as the artist intended). “The show took off as a conversation between the two artists,” says DeWitt, “when we realized we had actually more layers of psychological connection, and especially the kind of richness that would relate closely to our viewers.”

Those working on the AGO exhibit are hopeful that it will connect visitors more intimately to the struggles and triumphs of the artist, and the process of creativity. “I think it’s true that Michelangelo is known by only a handful of works—that is the Sistine Chapel, and it’s the David, and it’s the Pietà,” says Wistow. “And I think what you’ll leave with from this is some sense of the private world. And it’s not just his private personal life, but his private professional life—as if you were literally peering over his shoulder and watching his brain at work.”

Michelangelo: Quest for Genius opens Saturday, October 18 at the AGO and will run until Sunday, January 11.

Books: Canadian film icon David Cronenberg has decided he wants to upload his disturbing and evocative imaginings directly into your brain via the printed word. The horror auteur has just published his first novel, Consumed, and will be speaking about the book, his long film career, and the connections between the two mediums with Geoff […]

]]>Consumed, a farmers' market in condo-ville, and Cirque's steampunk dream.

Books: Canadian film icon David Cronenberg has decided he wants to upload his disturbing and evocative imaginings directly into your brain via the printed word. The horror auteur has just published his first novel, Consumed, and will be speaking about the book, his long film career, and the connections between the two mediums with Geoff Pevere, as part of Indigo’s events series, In Conversation. Isabel Bader Theatre (93 Charles Street West), 7 p.m., $32 + fee, GST. Details

Ongoing…

Art:“Before and After the Horizon: Anishinaabe Artists of the Great Lakes“ is a collaborative effort of the AGO and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, in New York City, where the exhibition recently wrapped up after a one-year run. The displays are organized by themes relating to Anishinaabe concepts of place and spirituality, and how they interact with the outside world. One of the most intriguing themes is “cottager colonialism,” which suggests that the colonization of indigenous land continues by way of vacationing tourists. Political statements are scattered throughout the exhibition, from Nadia Myre’s bead-covered pages of the Indian Act to the use of historical indigenous status documents in Robert Houle’s “Premises” series. Floral beaded bags and leggings, meanwhile, provide inspiration for the contemporary paintings of Christi Belcourt, an Ontario Arts Council Aboriginal Arts Award recipient. Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas Street West), all day, $19.50 (included with general adult admission). Details

Theatre: Only about two hours away from Toronto, madness is infiltrating the town of Stratford, Ontario—but fortunately, it’s the kind that produces delightful results. bus service to and from downtown (in its second year), it’s easy to get a taste of what the mania is all about. Here’s Torontoist‘s take on a sampling of this year’s festival offerings—Ira Glass and his opinions notwithstanding, a whole lot of people would welcome a chance to spend some time with the Bard and some of Canada’s most esteemed artists. Multiple venues, all day, $25–$133. Details

Art: Alex Colville’s paintings include some of the most recognizable works of Canadian art. Prints of his iconic Horse and Train and To Prince Edward Island hang in homes and classrooms and art shops around the world. And yet the Toronto-born artist, whose career spanned seven decades, is not often celebrated for the incredible influence he had on artists of many media.

With its new exhibition, “Alex Colville“, opening August 23, the Art Gallery of Ontario has mounted a show that not only documents the career of one of Canada’s most prolific artists, but also examines the nature of inspiration in art, literature, film, and beyond. Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas Street West), all day, . Details

Performing Arts: Cirque du Soleil is magical. Across from T&T Supermarket on Cherry Street, the pop-up striped tent transforms Polson Pier into a scene of fantastical fun—it’s a better location than any Las Vegas hotel or Orlando strip mall. And when you walk into the Grand Chapiteau venue, you’re welcomed into a bizarro steampunk contortionist dream.

Kicking off its North American tour in Toronto, Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities is Cirque du Soleil’s latest show. The official plot explanation is abstract and boring: there’s a Seeker in his own imaginary world called Curiosistan finding inventions with robots that smell like leather. It’s confusing to even layer a narrative over the spinning, jumping, flying and balancing. No one had no idea what was going on–but everyone loved the show. Grand Chapiteau (51 Commissioners Street), $55–$150. Details

Markets: Although living in the centre of downtown is awesome, it does have its drawbacks—namely, the lack of nearby farms and the delicious fresh produce they provide. But not anymore! Every Tuesday until October, CityPlace Farmers’ Market will be setting up shop in Northern Linear Park, nestled in the heart of condo-ville. Drop by to stock up on fruits, vegetables, and other goods, grown, made, and sold by local farmers. Canoe Landing Park (Fort York Boulevard and Dan Leckie Way), 3:30 p.m., FREE. Details

Theatre: These days, vacationers flock to Australia for the outback, the Great Barrier Reef, and, of course, kangaroos. But back in 1788, the only people travelling Down Under were the thieves, murderers, and prostitutes exiled from Britain. Our Country’s Good tells the story of some eager convicts who decide to make the best of their situation by putting on a play, unintentionally humanizing themselves in the eyes of their captors. Royal Alexandra Theatre (260 King Street West), 8 p.m., $25–$99. Details

Theatre: To the delight of those who fell victim to ticketing website crashes last year, The Book of Mormon is back! The brainchild of South Park‘s Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and Avenue Q co-creator Robert Lopez, this expectedly crude musical follows two 19-year-old Mormons as they travel to Uganda in hopes of converting the inhabitants of a small village. As one might imagine, hilarity ensues (with the help of some pretty catchy songs). Princess of Wales Theatre (300 King Street West), 8 p.m., . Details

Music: Maybe you’re not like the majority of people you see on dating sites, who apparently spend all of their time travelling the world, tasting foreign delicacies, and posing in front of landmarks. Maybe you like to hang around your own city—and that’s totally okay, especially considering that other cultures are going to come to you via the Small World Music Festival! Experience the sounds of Germany, Serbia, Brazil, Pakistan, and more as various venues across the city showcase esteemed international artists like Zakir Hussain, Boban & Marko Markovic Orkestra, Kobo Town, and Kiran Ahluwalia. Multiple venues, 8 p.m., FREE-$75. Details

Theatre: It’s 1968 and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. takes solace in his room at the Lorraine Motel as a storm rages outside. Exhausted, having just delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, he orders room service. The Mountaintop gives a sneak peek into the mind of this iconic leader as he launches into an intimate conversation with the young and mysterious maid that arrives with his meal. Aki Studio Theatre (585 Dundas Street East), 8 p.m., $15-35. Details

Happening soon:

Urban Planner is Torontoist‘s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email us with all the details (including images, if you’ve got any), ideally at least a week in advance.

Toronto has a dysfunctional relationship with music festivals. We love them, they love us, and somehow the relationship has never worked. Festivals of all lengths, sizes, and genres pop up each summer—this was a particularly hot one, with the Fort York invasion (Toronto Urban Roots Fest, Field Trip, TIME Fest, Mad Decent Block Party), the […]

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Photo by D.A. Cooper.

Toronto has a dysfunctional relationship with music festivals. We love them, they love us, and somehow the relationship has never worked.

Festivals of all lengths, sizes, and genres pop up each summer—this was a particularly hot one, with the Fort York invasion (Toronto Urban Roots Fest, Field Trip, TIME Fest, Mad Decent Block Party), the influx of jazz (TD and Beaches jazz festivals), the rivalry of weeklong national exposure (NXNE, Canadian Music Week), the electronic raves (VELD, Digital Dreams, Electric Island), and Edgefest, the Everybody Loves Raymond of music festivals that’s inexplicably popular despite the fact that almost nobody you know goes.

But in the past, the list has been even longer. Think back a few years, and you’ll recall the other outdoor multi-day festivals that once vied for popularity and are now defunct—Virgin Fest, Rogers Picnic, ALL CAPS!, Heavy T.O., Grove, Olympic Island Festival, Sound in Motion; and the list goes (depressingly) on. What’s worse, name-drop any one of these outside the GTA, and you’ll receive confused stares: Ottawa has Bluesfest, Montreal has Osheaga, even Guelph has Hillside. Toronto has no such hallmark festival.

Now that Riot Fest has capped off this summer’s festival season, we have to ask: What are the chances these events will return next year, and why do so many of them fail to thrive?

Problem 1: Festivals With No Track Records Don’t Draw Tourists

VELD 2013. Photo by Giordano Ciampini.

Festivals are tourist destinations, and tourists bring dollars. Tourists come to Chicago for Lollapalooza, and to New York for the Governors Ball. “I don’t know that any of us want to be a strictly Toronto thing,” says Jeff Cohen, owner of the Horseshoe Tavern and Lee’s Palace, and mastermind of the two-year-old Toronto Urban Roots Festival (TURF). He says that 40 per cent of TURF’s ticket sales came from outside the GTA this year—twice as many compared to 2013, but still a far cry from Montreal’s Osheaga, which enjoys a comfortable 70 per cent attendance from outside the city.

Drawing international crowds demands a certain amount of social media savvy and advertising money, but also a reputation, which, so far, most festivals lack.

Problem 2: Festivals Lack Clear Guidance From City Hall

From a municipal governing standpoint, the City doesn’t really know how running a festival should look and how much it should cost. “As long as we can outline those costs and expectations, it will, I think, help foster growth within the industry, because there’s some certainty attached to it,” says Councillor Mike Layton, who represents Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina, which includes Fort York and Exhibition Place. “It’s not like all of a sudden you walk into a situation, and you’ve got a bunch of costs thrown at you.”

Getting festivals in Fort York off the ground has required organizers and City officials to cobble together details surrounding noise levels, speaker control, and community relations in a piecemeal way. Layton is pushing for Toronto to establish a “music czar,” similar to what Austin has in place, who could spearhead those projects and help curate future festivals; without that, the festival organizers themselves have had to learn the legal ropes.

Problem 3: Over-Saturation, or the “So What?” Problem

Between Toronto’s hundreds of clubs, bars, and music venues offering live music literally every day of the year, Torontonians don’t feel they should shell out a few hundred bucks for a single weekend of live music. Unlike, for example, Ottawa, to which Bluesfest draws rare international acts, Toronto sees mega-stars weekly. “Festivals are culturally driven,” notes Jeffrey Remedios, co-founder of the Arts & Crafts music label and their nascent festival, Field Trip. “People have to learn through experimentation and trial what to expect. ‘Why am I going to this and not just going to a concert? What’s the difference?’ And that’s something that’s a bit of an education.”

And then combine that with the fact that our short summers are already over-saturated with music festivals, to the point that the city’s own music critics can’t keep up. “I can’t see all of these staggering on,” says Ben Rayner, music critic for the Toronto Star since 1998. “You can’t possibly cover it all. I feel guilty sometimes, ‘cause, you know … I’ve been at the Star for 16 years now—like, I know a lot of the people running these things, and you want to help them out—but, Jesus, there’s a lot going on.”

Problem 4: Where Do You Put 10,000 People?

Campers at the ALL CAPS! music festival. Photo by Corbin Smith.

“Toronto doesn’t have a natural [festival] location,” Remedios says, “and the ones we do have, there’s only so much tolerance to put something big in.” Fort York and the surrounding Garrison Commons have become a favourite for Remedios’s Field Trip and Cohen’s TURF—though the fort is plagued by an ominous history of hosting forgotten festivals like Rogers Picnic and Blue Rodeo’s Stardust Picnic, which flopped due to a lack of infrastructure in the downtown park.

One problem has been noise complaints: last year, Cohen says TURF received 69 on its first day alone. “We figured, ‘Well, this is the last year we’re running this,’” he recalls. Councillor Layton was shocked, too, because they’d felt they communicated to nearby residents ahead of time what would be going on. “I don’t think folks realized exactly what the significance of the noise would be,” Layton added. But surviving that first year helped pave the way for its second, when TURF received only two complaints during all three days.

The second problem has been, and still is, capacity. Garrison Commons can’t accommodate more than roughly 10,000 people, which has led other organizers to scout the city’s outskirts for likely spots, such as Downsview Park and the Toronto Islands. The problem with both is perceived access. The Islands hosted the late ALL CAPS! and V-Fest, and still enjoy a small turnout with Electric Island, but the $7 ferry ride and physical distance is discouraging. Downsview, meanwhile, sees action with Riot Fest and has before with Edgefest, but sits near the northernmost station on the Spadina subway line, causing downtowners to moan. “I don’t understand why people deride Downsview as much as they do,” Rayner laughs. “If you’re afraid of walking for 10 minutes—I think that’s what upsets people, ’cause they’re lazy. They don’t want to walk the last little bit.”

Meanwhile, Councillor Layton thinks Ontario Place is the ideal “festival hub,” but getting the province and City on board has been difficult, and using public transit to get there can be tricky.

Problem 5: Council Needs to Counsel

“Normally, someone in government would have the vision to want to have these events in Toronto,” Cohen says. “I’m not aware that, previous to some new elected officials, that anyone at City Hall has been lobbying … to make Toronto a live music centre in the summertime.”

Those new elected officials are three city councillors: Layton, Josh Colle (Ward 15, Eglinton-Lawrence), and Gary Crawford (Ward 36, Scarborough Southwest). While they don’t all have jurisdiction over Toronto’s main outdoor venues, they have sway with councillors who do, and have helped rip off some of the red tape that has previously hindered live music outdoors, partially explaining why we’ve seen such an influx in recent years.

Problem 6: A Festival Needs a Reason

The Strumbellas at TURF 2014. Photo by Michael Fraiman.

Ticket sales mean nothing unless the festival has fans. Rayner points to Rogers Picnic as an example of a well-curated festival with major headliners as diverse as The Roots, Bedouin Soundclash, and Bad Brains—which might have been its downfall.

“You have to have an identity as a festival,” Rayner notes. “You can’t just whack a bunch of bands on a bill and hope it’s gonna succeed on the strength of volume—which is kinda what Riot Fest is up against…. They spent a hell of a lot of money to cast as wide a net as possible, and I’m not sure that always works.”

Smaller genre-specific festivals such as VELD or Bowmanville’s Boots & Hearts have have a much easier time making money. Often the more people you try to please, the less money you make.

Problem 7: Nobody’s Making Money

“Unless you really know what you’re doing, you’re gonna lose money,” Cohen says. “Anyone who starts an outdoor festival and thinks they’re going to make money right away, either they’re doing EDM … or they’ve stumbled on it. I think most of us know it’s a long-term thing.”

Festivals that started too big, like V-Fest, crumbled under their own weight, Cohen says. He’s got a 10-year plan for TURF, and he’s fully expecting to lose money for the first five. “We’re just following our plan,” he smiles. “We’re not going anywhere.”

CORRECTIONS: September 8, 9:45PM Ben Rayner’s name was originally misspelled as “Ben Raynor”; the Boots & Hearts festival was written as Hearts & Boots; and Edgefest was erroneously said to still be at Downsview Park. Torontoist regrets the errors.

Ongoing… Art: If The Forbidden City: Inside the Court of China’s Emperors has a mascot, it’s Emperor Yongzheng. The image of the 18th-century Chinese ruler dominates the promotional material of the exhibition, which is one of the centrepieces of the Royal Ontario Museum’s centennial year. His portrait certainly has visual appeal, but Yongzheng is also […]

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Ongoing…

Art: If The Forbidden City: Inside the Court of China’s Emperors has a mascot, it’s Emperor Yongzheng. The image of the 18th-century Chinese ruler dominates the promotional material of the exhibition, which is one of the centrepieces of the Royal Ontario Museum’s centennial year. His portrait certainly has visual appeal, but Yongzheng is also a figure associated with surprising elements of life within the former imperial palace. Royal Ontario Museum (100 Queens Park), all day, $27 adults. Details

Art:“Before and After the Horizon: Anishinaabe Artists of the Great Lakes“ is a collaborative effort of the AGO and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, in New York City, where the exhibition recently wrapped up after a one-year run. The displays are organized by themes relating to Anishinaabe concepts of place and spirituality, and how they interact with the outside world. One of the most intriguing themes is “cottager colonialism,” which suggests that the colonization of indigenous land continues by way of vacationing tourists. Political statements are scattered throughout the exhibition, from Nadia Myre’s bead-covered pages of the Indian Act to the use of historical indigenous status documents in Robert Houle’s “Premises” series. Floral beaded bags and leggings, meanwhile, provide inspiration for the contemporary paintings of Christi Belcourt, an Ontario Arts Council Aboriginal Arts Award recipient. Art Gallery of Ontario (317 Dundas Street West), all day, $19.50 (included with general adult admission). Details

Theatre: Only about two hours away from Toronto, madness is infiltrating the town of Stratford, Ontario—but fortunately, it’s the kind that produces delightful results. Stratford Festival artistic director Antoni Cimolino has designed this year’s season around the theme “Madness: Minds Pushed to the Edge,” and explores it through everything from jukebox musicals to Shakespearean tragedies. And with the festival’s increasingly popular twice-daily bus service to and from downtown (in its second year), it’s easy to get a taste of what the mania is all about. Here’s Torontoist‘s take on a sampling of this year’s festival offerings—Ira Glass and his opinions notwithstanding, a whole lot of people would welcome a chance to spend some time with the Bard and some of Canada’s most esteemed artists. Multiple venues, all day, $25–$133. Details

Photography: Our fascination with fame and celebrity isn’t new—and this is illustrated in Izzy Gallery’s newest exhibit, Terry O’Neil: The Man Who Shot the Sixties. A photographer from the U.K., O’Neill snapped iconic shots of everyone from The Beatles and Rolling Stones to Brigitte Bardot and Faye Dunaway. The opening party features an appearance by O’Neill himself, and his “photographs from the frontline of fame” will remain on display until the end of August. Izzy Gallery (106 Yorkville Avenue), 11 a.m., FREE. Details

Theatre: Mystic Forest Productions is presenting a week-long run of a selection of theatrically staged Robert Munsch stories, entitled Munsch At Play. There’s a twist to their kids theatre offering, too: the performers are “professional actors from different mental and physical abilities.” That means the cast includes performers such as veteran stand-up comic Andre Arruda and actor Krystal Nausbaum, who was a bright light in the Judith Thompson show Rare. There are two shows a day, and they’re recommended for the younger set—but if you’re a big Robert Munsch fan, you’ll know his work can be appreciated at any age. Toronto Public Library, Palmerston Branch (560 Palmerston Avenue), 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., $5–$10. Details

Happening soon:

Urban Planner is Torontoist‘s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email us with all the details (including images, if you’ve got any), ideally at least a week in advance.

Every weekday’s end, we collect just about everything you ought to care about or ought not to miss. In the wake of a Globe and Mail investigation that suggests the Ford brothers helped a client of their family business, Deco Labels and Tags, lobby the City for work, Doug is accusing the paper of having […]

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Every weekday’s end, we collect just about everything you ought to care about or ought not to miss.

In the wake of a Globe and Mail investigation that suggests the Ford brothers helped a client of their family business, Deco Labels and Tags, lobby the City for work, Doug is accusing the paper of having “stolen information” and announcing that “if there’s false accusations against our company, they will be held accountable”—and the mayor is making intriguing comments about morality in the public sphere, the line between the personal and the political, and the real bottom line: “Our business is our business. I don’t ask you how much money you’ve got in the bank. If I have to declare a conflict with every single company or every single person, then I shouldn’t be in politics for 14 years or neither should my dad or anyone else in our family. And that’s the bottom line.”

What better way to celebrate the middle-to-end of summer and the beginning of fall than with dozens of mayoral debates? If you’re looking to attend as many as possible, it’ll be handy to have a list of scheduled debates involving two or more candidates. Here is a list of scheduled debates involving two or more candidates.

When you’re busy attending dozens of mayoral debates and assessing the two or more candidates present, it can be difficult to remember that there have been other races and other campaigns. So if you have a minute to spare between thinking about John Tory’s SmartTrack proposal and the gloriously meme-ified David Soknacki’s respect for basic math, you might want to watch this NFB documentary, available free online, that follows former mayor David Miller during the 2003 municipal election campaign, when he was still only soon-to-be-mayor David Miller—and “meme” was still likely being used only by Richard Dawkins and a number of people who read and enjoyed Richard Dawkins, rather than by everyone looking at cats and David Soknacki on the internet.

Every weekday’s end, we collect just about everything you ought to care about or ought not to miss. The unionized workers for a Bombardier plant in Thunder Bay that makes streetcars, subway cars, and GO transit cars are currently on strike. No new offer has been forthcoming from the company since July 12, and as […]

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Every weekday’s end, we collect just about everything you ought to care about or ought not to miss.

The unionized workers for a Bombardier plant in Thunder Bay that makes streetcars, subway cars, and GO transit cars are currently on strike. No new offer has been forthcoming from the company since July 12, and as of right now, no additional contract talks have been planned. This news will be of special interest to those who’ve been anticipating the arrival of the TTC’s new streetcars, in that it’s this particular plant that’s responsible for building those new streetcars. The TTC has indicated that the August 31 launch of the beautiful new streetcars will go ahead as planned, even if it’s more of “a launch of that one beautiful new streetcar we have.” In a statement, the TTC’s Brad Ross commented: “The TTC has publicly committed to having at least one new streetcar in service starting Aug. 31. That commitment remains unchanged.”

You may recall that on May 2, Andrea Horwath indicated the NDP was prepared to vote against the Liberal budget, and triggered an election. You may also recall that more recently, we had that election, and the Liberals won a majority government. That latter fact is why the Liberals were able to reintroduce that same budget today and not have to worry about needing anyone else’s help to pass it.

If you would like to round out your day by watching American comedian Paul F. Tompkins slap a muppet beaver Rob Ford across the face, we can direct you to a video that will allow you to do just that.

The Ontario New Democratic Party needs to reclaim the socially progressive values it abandoned in the recent provincial campaign, according to one of its own MPPs. In an interview on Sunday, about a month after election day, Parkdale-High Park MPP Cheri DiNovo blamed the NDP’s poor results in Toronto—including the loss of three MPPs—on her […]

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Parkdale High-Park MPP Cheri DiNovo, in an interview about the 2014 provincial election.

The Ontario New Democratic Party needs to reclaim the socially progressive values it abandoned in the recent provincial campaign, according to one of its own MPPs. In an interview on Sunday, about a month after election day, Parkdale-High Park MPP Cheri DiNovo blamed the NDP’s poor results in Toronto—including the loss of three MPPs—on her party’s lack of focus on poverty, child care, housing, and education. “It was a debacle from the beginning, from day one,” DiNovo told us at a cafe within the riding. “When I would hear at the door, ‘We love you, but…’ I knew we were in trouble.”

The NDP offset its three losses in Toronto with victories in Oshawa, Windsor, and Sudbury, maintaining its 21-seat count in the provincial legislature but losing the balance of power it held during the previous minority government. During the campaign the party faced harsh criticism from union allies and from within its own ranks, including a letter signed by 34 prominent social activists with longstanding NDP ties, challenging party leader Andrea Horwath to explain why she was asking NDP supporters to vote against their own principles.

Concerns about the Ontario NDP’s direction have not abated in the month since the election.

DiNovo, a decades-long activist for queer rights who was first elected in 2006, held her seat by just 525 votes, against Liberal challenger Nancy Leblanc. (In 2011 DiNovo won by 3,488 votes.) “I pretty much ran against my party in terms of platform,” said DiNovo. “Many of our supporters—who voted Liberal—saw more progress in the Liberal budget than they saw in our platform. That was a core mistake.” She attributes her victory to running a municipal-style campaign that highlighted her constituency work, rather than that platform.

DiNovo’s decision to speak out about the state of her party coincides with considerable internal ONDP strife. Several key party organizers have already met to discuss some next steps, including removing current members of the party’s executive. And as the Globe and Mailreported, party leader Andrea Horwath’s chief of staff Gissel Yanez, and advisor Elliott Anderson, will be leaving their positions. ONDP president Neethan Shan, who ran unsuccessfully for the party in Scarborough-Rouge River, registered to run for Toronto city council in Ward 42 (Scarborough-Rouge River) the following week.

There does not appear to be any concerted effort to replace Horwath herself, however. With a federal election coming in 2015 (which will pull resources and talent from the provincial party), and no clear consensus candidate that the progressive wing of the party could rally around, there’s no sense that a leadership challenge is in the offing. Horwath faces a leadership review in November, at the party’s convention; according to the ONDP constitution, she needs a majority of delegate votes to continue as party leader. Critics notwithstanding, she is widely expected to clear that hurdle without difficulty.

DiNovo says that while Horwath has been widely criticized for the party’s campaign and platform, the NDP faces broader leadership challenges: “Whatever happened is not the leader’s issue alone…. This a problem of leadership generally, and there’s a whole strategic team involved in that.” In reference to the departure of Yanez and Anderson, DiNovo said, “You can change the strategists, you can change the chief of staff … those are probably good things to do. But at the end of the day it’s about who we are as a party and what we stand for that we need to look at as New Democrats.”

One of the most prominent of the protest letter’s signatories was activist Judy Rebick, who told us that the ONDP’s campaign was a sharp departure from the party’s socially progressive roots. “The NDP has always believed that government has a constructive role to play in society,” she said. “It was as if they gave up on that in this election. A number of the people who signed the letter tried to talk to Andrea before the letter went out—she wouldn’t talk to anybody.”

DiNovo said that while the party did consult the grassroots membership before the campaign, the party’s platform ultimately did not reflect those consultations. Nigel Bariffe, who campaigned unsuccessfully for the NDP in Etobicoke North, disagrees, and said riding associations and candidates were shut out of the process. “The type of platform that came forward wasn’t one that went through a democratic process,” Bariffe told us in a phone interview. “As a candidate, I didn’t have any say.” Bariffe was also adamant that changes within the ONDP leadership are necessary. He expressed disappointment with the treatment he received from some senior party staffers, particularly Yanez. “They’re gonna have to fall on their swords,” he said.

DiNovo says the NDP will not regain frustrated supporters by portraying the recent election as progress, which has been the official line—focusing on the fact that the party improved its share of the popular vote by one per cent, and that efforts to attract voters outside of Toronto yielded gains. “It’s important for our voters in Toronto to know that we did not see that campaign as a success,” DiNovo says. “I think voters appreciate honesty.”

“I understand that we were trying to appeal to Conservative voters outside of Toronto, but we can’t ever give up our core values and principles,” DiNovo continued. “To do it is to become another Liberal party, which is the last thing I want.” She promised to keep fighting for what she sees as critical progressive issues in her riding, including housing, the electrification of the Pearson Airport rail link, and Toronto’s ongoing struggles with the Ontario Municipal Board.

“We’ve lost the ability to talk about investment across party lines,” said DiNovo. “But that we’ve lost the ability to speak about it in the New Democratic Party … that’s not us, and that shouldn’t be us.”

WHERE: Along Carlton and Yonge streets WHEN: Saturday, June 28 WHAT: Part celebration, part demonstration, the 2014 Dyke March brought together lesbian, bisexual, and queer women for one of Pride’s key events. Participants gathered at Allan Gardens to make signs, and thousands more joined them to make noise at a pre-march rally. The march itself […]

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WHERE: Along Carlton and Yonge streets

WHEN: Saturday, June 28

WHAT: Part celebration, part demonstration, the 2014 Dyke March brought together lesbian, bisexual, and queer women for one of Pride’s key events. Participants gathered at Allan Gardens to make signs, and thousands more joined them to make noise at a pre-march rally. The march itself featured the usual mix of flashy costumes, rainbow flags, and of course, motorcycles. Click through the gallery to see the highlights.

WHERE: Along Yonge, Bloor, and Church streets WHEN: Friday, June 27 WHAT: Trans pride was on display Friday as the biggest Trans March ever in Canada kicked off WorldPride weekend. The event is partly a means of raising public awareness of trans issues, as well as a celebration of Toronto’s trans community. Two trans marches […]

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WHERE: Along Yonge, Bloor, and Church streets

WHEN: Friday, June 27

WHAT: Trans pride was on display Friday as the biggest Trans March ever in Canada kicked off WorldPride weekend. The event is partly a means of raising public awareness of trans issues, as well as a celebration of Toronto’s trans community. Two trans marches took place this year—the official, WorldPride-affiliated event, and a smaller protest march by the unaffiliated Trans March Toronto. Check out the gallery to see what you might have missed.

WHAT: Rufus Wainwright, music director Stephen Oremus, and a full 40-piece orchestra in a rehearsal for “If I Loved You: Gentlemen Prefer Broadway—An Evening of Love Duets.” The show—presented by Luminato in partnership with WorldPride and taking place this Saturday night—will feature musical luminaries such as David Byrne, Boy George, Josh Groban, and, of course, Rufus himself, performing love songs from Broadway musicals. “Who doesn’t want to hear these artists sing together?” commented Jorn Weisbrodt, who is both the festival’s artistic director and Wainwright’s husband. “If I Loved You is not about turning something from ‘straight’ to ‘gay,’ by singing love duets with only men, but instead, to declare the universality of love, and to celebrate love that comes in every shade.”